There's Something in Room 505

The Hotel Savoy rises seven floors out of the Kansas City street. The red brick hotel, built in 1888, has a storied history – some of which still roams its halls.

Long time bus staff speak of phantom carts squeaking down halls, shadows walking in the basement, and the ghost of a little girl who stalks the fourth floor. Although management doesn’t promote these stories, the stories persist. The daddy of which is room 505.

Legend has it a woman died in the bathtub of Room 505. Visitors have said the shower curtain shuts by itself and the water comes on. The room was turned into an apartment, but the stories of people staying there vary.

Mike Dobbins, who lived in 505 in 2004, hasn’t had an encounter with the shower specter.

“I haven’t seen anything,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything. I had someone who’d come in here and said she’d sensed something, but I’m not in tune with that sort of thing.”

But Anne Bishop of Lee’s Summit is. Bishop has stayed in that room, and she knows it’s haunted.

“There’s more than one ghost in the place,” she said.

She was staying with her brother who lived in room 505 when she encountered some of the spirits of the Savoy. Anne and her brother had gone to a club for a couple of drinks, and she’d come back and fell asleep on the couch.

“And I had a dream that was one of these dreams that was not a dream,” she said. “I dreamed I was on the couch sleeping and there was two women and one man standing over me talking about me.”

Anne, who’s sensitive to the spirit world, is convinced this was not a dream, but an encounter.

“I know the difference between when I get messages from the other side,” she said. “I know when it’s a dream or something in my head. It was very distinct who was standing there.”

Anne, a registered nurse, attended a medical conference in downtown Kansas City when she stayed with her brother a second time.

“He went to spend the night at his girlfriend’s house and all of a sudden I just thought, ‘I’m going to be in here by myself?’” she said. “I remember standing in his bedroom and saying, “listen. I know you’re here, but I really have to get up early so please don’t jack with me.”

She slept with the lights on, but that didn’t stop whatever inhabits 505 from saying hello.

“I’m a smoker and never go to bed without my cigarettes and a lighter next to me,” she said. “The next morning, the lighter was gone and I thought, ‘what the hell?’”

She went about her morning, getting ready for work when she walked back into her brother’s bedroom and found her lighter.

“In front of the bathroom door, from the middle of my left thigh, the lighter just, ‘boom,’ appeared and slipped down from inside my pants and right out in front of me,” she said. “I just said, ‘good one.’”

Anne said things like this happen all the time, we just don’t recognize it.

“The world is a much more magical place than people give it credit for,” she said. “It’s about our culture. Our minds are just not very open.”

And she’s convinced the Hotel Savoy is one of those magical places.

“There is no doubt that there is stuff going on there,” she said.

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.